IMAGE  EVALUATION 
TEST  TARGET  (MT-3) 


// 


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1.0 


1.1 


U;|2j8     12.5 


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11.25  il.4 


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Photographic 

Sciences 

Corjwralion 


13  WIST  MAIN  STtliT 

W»ST«,N.Y.  14580 

(716)  •72-4503 


CIHM/ICMH 

Microfiche 

Series. 


CIHM/ICMH 
Collection  de 
microfiches. 


Canadian  Institute  for  Historical  Microreproductions  /  Institut  Canadian  de  microreproductlons  historiques 


r/3 


Tochnical  and  Bibliographic  Notot/Notat  tachniquaa  at  bibliographiquat 


Tlia  inatituta  haa  attamptad  to  obtain  tha  baat 
original  copy  availabia  for  filming.  Faaturaa  of^hia 
copy  which  may  ba  bibllographlcaiiy  uniqua, 
which  may  altar  any  of  tha  imagas  in  tha 
raproduction,  or  which  may  aignlficantiy  changa 
tha  usual  mathod  of  filming,  ara  chackeid  baiow. 


0 


D 
D 


n 


Colourad  covars/ 
Couvartura  da  coulaur 


I     I   Covars  damagad/ 


Couvartura  andommagAa 

Covars  rastorad  and/or  laminatad/ 
Couvartura  rastaurte  at/ou  paiiiculAa 

Covar  titia  missing/ 

La  titra  da  couvartura  manqua 

Colourad  maps/ 

Cartas  gAographiquas  an  coulaur 

Colourad  ink  (i.a.  othar  than  blue  or  black)/ 
Encra  da  coulaur  (i.a.  autra  qua  blaua  ou  noira) 


I     I   Colourad  platas  and/or  illustrations/ 


D 


Planchas  at/ou  illustrations  an  coulaur 


Bound  with  othar  matariai/ 
RailA  avac  d'autras  documants 


Tight  bintJing  may  causa  shadows  or  distortion 
along  intarior  margin/ 

La  reliura  sarrAa  paut  causar  da  i'ombra  ou  da  la 
distortion  la  long  da  la  marga  intAriaura 

Blank  laavas  added  during  restoration  may 
appear  within  the  text.  Whenever  possible,  these 
have  been  omitted  from  filming/ 
II  se  peut  que  certaines  pages  blanches  ajouttes 
lors  d'une  restauration  apparalssent  dans  la  texte, 
mais,  lorsque  cela  Atait  possible,  ces  pages  n'ont 
pas  At*  filmAes. 

Additional  comments:/ 
Commentaires  supplAmantaires; 


L'Inatitut  a  microfllmA  la  mellleur  exemplaire 
qu'll  lui  a  AtA  poaslbia  de  aa  procurer.  Les  details 
da  cat  exemplaire  qui  sont  peut-Atre  uniques  du 
point  de  vue  bibiiographiqua.  qui  pauvent  modifier 
une  Image  reprodulte,  ou  qui  peuvent  exiger  une 
modification  dans  la  mtthoda  normale  de  filmaga 
sont  indiqute  ci-dessous. 


|~n  Coloured  pages/ 


D 


Pages  de  couleur 

Pages  damaged/ 
Pages  andommagAes 

Pages  restored  and/oi 

Pages  restaurAes  et/ou  pelliculAes 

Pages  discoloured,  stained  or  foxei 
Pages  dAcolortes,  tachettes  ou  piquAas 

Pages  detached/ 
Pages  dAtachAas 

Showthroughy 
Transparence 

Quality  of  prir 

Quality  inAgala  de  I'impression 

Includes  supplementary  materii 
Comprend  du  materiel  supplAmentaira 

Only  edition  available/ 
Seule  Mition  disponible 


I  I  Pages  damaged/ 

I  I  Pages  restored  and/or  laminated/ 

I  I  Pages  discoloured,  stained  or  foxed/ 

I  I  Pages  detached/ 

[~~|  Showthrough/ 

I  I  Quality  of  print  varies/ 

I  I  Includes  supplementary  material/ 

I  I  Only  edition  available/ 


1 


Tl 
tc 


Pages  wholly  or  partially  obscured  by  errata 
slips,  tissues,  etc..  have  been  refilmed  to 
ensure  the  best  possible  image/ 
Les  pages  totalement  ou  partiellement 
obscurcies  par  un  feuillet  d'errata,  une  pelure, 
etc.,  ont  M  filmtes  4k  nouveau  de  fapon  h 
obtenir  la  meilleure  image  possible. 


Tl 

P< 
o\ 

fil 


O 
b( 
til 
si 
ol 
fli 

8( 

Ol 


Tl 

sr 

Tl 
w 

M 
di 
er 
bi 

rl| 
re 
m 


This  item  is  filmed  at  the  reduction  ratio  checked  below/ 

Ce  document  est  filmA  au  taux  de  rMuction  indiqu6  ci-dessous. 

10X  14X  18X  22X 


^ 


26X 


30X 


12X 


16X 


20X 


MX 


28X 


32X 


Th«  copy  film«d  h«r«  hat  been  r«produc«cl  thanks 
to  tha  ganaroaity  of: 

Library  Diviiion 

Provincial  Archives  of  British  Columbia 

Tha  imagaa  appaaring  hara  ara  tha  baat  quality 
posaibia  contidaring  tha  condition  and  lagibility 
of  tha  original  copy  and  in  Icaaping  with  tha 
filming  contract  apacif icationa. 


Original  copias  in  printad  papar  covars  ara  filmad 
baginning  with  tha  front  covar  and  anding  on 
tha  last  paga  with  a  printad  or  illustratad  impras- 
sion.  or  tha  bacit  covar  whan  appropriata.  All 
othar  original  capiat  ara  filmad  baginning  on  tha 
firtt  paga  with  a  printad  or  illuttratad  imprat- 
tion.  and  anding  on  tha  latt  paga  with  a  printad 
or  illuttratad  imprattion. 


Tha  latt  racordad  frame  on  aach  microficha 
thall  contain  the  tymbol  — ^>  (meaning  "CON- 
TINUED"), or  the  tymbol  V  (meaning  "END"), 
whichever  appliet. 

Mapt.  platat.  chartt.  etc..  may  be  filmed  at 
different  reduction  ratiot.  Thote  too  large  to  be 
entirely  included  in  one  expoture  are  filmed 
beginning  in  the  upper  left  hand  corner,  left  to 
right  and  top  to  bottom,  at  many  framet  at 
required.  The  following  diagramt  illuttrate  the 
method: 


L'exampiaira  film*  fut  reproduit  grice  A  la 
g*n*rotlt4  da: 

Library  Division 

Provincial  Archives  of  British  Columbia 

Let  imagat  tulvantat  ont  At*  reprodultet  avac  la 
plut  grand  toin,  compta  tenu  de  la  condition  at 
da  la  nattet*  de  I'exemplaire  film*,  et  en 
conformit*  avac  let  conditiont  du  contrat  da 
fiimaga. 

Let  exemplairat  originaux  dont  la  couverture  en 
papier  ett  imprimie  tont  film*t  en  commen9ant 
par  la  premier  plat  et  en  terminant  toit  par  la 
darniAre  paga  qui  comporte  une  empreinte 
d'imprettion  ou  d'illuttratlon,  toit  par  la  tecond 
plat,  talon  la  cat.  Tout  let  autrat  exemplairat 
originaux  tont  film*t  en  commen^ant  par  la 
premiAre  page  qui  comporte  une  empreinte 
d'imprettion  ou  d'iliuttration  et  en  terminant  par 
la  derni*re  page  qui  comporte  une  telle 
empreinte. 

Un  det  tymbolet  suivantt  apparaftra  tur  la 
derni*re  image  de  cheque  microfiche,  telon  le 
cat:  le  tymbole  — ►  tignifie  "A  SUIVRE".  le 
tymbole  V  tignifie  "FIN". 

Let  cartet.  planchei,  tableaux,  etc..  peuvent  Atre 
filmit  *  det  taux  de  reduction  diff*rentt. 
Lortque  le  document  ett  trop  grand  pour  Atre 
reproduit  en  un  teul  ciich*.  il  ett  film*  *  partir 
de  I'angle  tup*rieur  gauche,  de  gauche  *  droite. 
et  de  haut  en  bat,  en  prenant  le  nombre 
d'imagat  n*cettaire.  Let  diagrammet  tuivants 
illuttrent  la  m*thode. 


1 

2 

3 

1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

ALASKA 


SPEECH 


OF 


WILLIAM  H.  SEWARD, 


AT 


SITKA,  AUGUST  12,  1869. 


WASHINGTON,  D.  C: 
PHILP    &    SOLOMONS. 

1869. 


// 


/ 


1 


SPEECH 


/ 


/ 


f 


S 


Citizens  of  Alaska,  fellow-citizens  of  the  United  States: 

You  have  pressed  me  to  meet  you  in  public  assembly 
once  before  I  leave  Alaska.  It  would  be  sheer  affecta- 
tion to  pretend  to  doubt  your  sincerity  in  making  this 
request,  and  capriciously  ungrateful  to  refuse  it,  after 
having  received  so  many  and  varied  hospitalities  from 
all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men.  It  is  not  an  easy  task, 
however,  to  speak  in  a  manner  worthy  of  your  consid- 
eration, while  I  am  living  constantly  on  ship-board,  as 
you  all  know,  and  am  occupied  intently  in  searching  out 
whatever  is  sublime,  or  beautiful,  or  peculiar,  or  use- 
ful. On  the  other  liand,  it  is  altogether  natural  on  your 
part  to  say,  "You  have  looked  upon  Alaska,  what  do 
you  think  of  it?"  Unhappily  I  have  seen  too  little  of 
Alaska  to  answer  the  question  satisfactorily.  The  en- 
tire coast  line  of  the  United  States,  exclusive  of  Alaska, 
is  10,000  miles,  while  the  coast  line  of  Alaska  alone, 
including  the  islands,  is  26,000  miles.  The  portion  of 
the  Territory  which  lies  east  of  the  peninsula,  includ- 
ing islands,  is  120  miles  wide  ;  the  western  portion, 
including  Aleutian  islands,  expands  to  a  breadth  of 
2,200  miles.  The  entire  land  area,  including  islands, 
is  577,390  statute  square  miles.  We  should  think  a  for- 
eigner very  presumptuous  who  should  presume  to  give 
the  world  an  opinion  of  the  whole  of  the  United  States 
of  America,  after  he  had  merely  looked  in  from  his 
steamer  at  Plymouth  and  Boston  harbor,  or  had  ran  up 
the  Hudson  river  to  the  Highlands,  or  had  ascended  the 


51861 


Delaware  to  Trenton,  or  the  James  river  to  Eichniond, 
or  the  Mississippi  no  farther  than  Memphis.  My  ob- 
servation thus  far  has  hardly  been  more  comprehen- 
sive. I  entered  the  Territory  of  Alaska  at  the  Port- 
land canal,  made  my  way  through  the  narrow  passages 
of  the  Prince  of  "Wales  archipelago,  thence  through 
Peril  and  Chatham  straits  and  Lynn  channel,  and  up 
the  Chilcat  river  to  the  base  of  Fairvveather ;  from 
which  latter  place  I  have  returned  through  Clarence 
straits,  to  sojourn  a  few  days  in  your  beautiful  bay, 
under  the  shadows  of  the  Baranoff  hills  and  Mount 
Edgecombe.  Limited,  however,  as  my  opportunities 
have  been,  I  will,  without  further  apology,  give  you 
the  impressions  I  have  received. 

Of  course  I  speak  first  of  the  skies  of  Alaska.  It 
seems  to  be  assumed  in  the  case  of  Alaska  that  a  coun- 
try which  extends  through  58  degrees  of  longitude, 
and  embraces  portions  as  well  of  the  arctic  as  of  the 
temperate  zone,  unlike  all  other  regions  so  situated, 
has  not  several  climates,  but  only  one.  The  weather 
of  this  one  broad  climate  of  Alaska  is  severely  criti- 
cised in  outside  circles  for  being  too  wet  and  too  cold. 
Neverthelesss  it  must  be  a  fastidious  person  who  com- 
plains of  climates  in  which,  while  the  eagle  delights  to 
soar,  the  humming-bird  does  not  disdain  to  flutter.  I 
shall  speak  only  of  the  particular  climate  here  which  I 
know. 

My  visit  here  happens  to  fall  within  the  month 
of  August.  Not  only  have  the  skies  been  sufficiently 
bright  and  serene  to  give  me  a  perfect  view,  under  the 
60th  parallel,  of  the  total  eclipse  of  the  sun,  and  of  the 
evening  star  at  the  time  of  the  sun's  obscuration,  but 
I  have  also  enjoyed  more  clear  than  there  have  been 
cloudy  days,  and  in  the  early  mornings  and  in  the  late 


' 


evenings  peculiar  to  the  season  I  have  lost  myself  in 
admiration  of  skies  adorned  with  sapphire  and  gold  as 
richly  as  those  which  are  reflected  by  the  Mediterra- 
nean. Of  all  the  moonlights  in  the  world  commend 
me  to  those  which  light  up  the  archipelago  of  the 
North  Pacific  ocean.  Fogs  have  sometimes  detained 
me  longer  on  the  Hudson  and  on  Long  Island  sound 
than  now  on  the  waters  of  the  North  Pacific.  In  say- 
ing this,  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  rain  and  fog  are 
unfrcquent  here.  The  Russian  pilot,  George,  whom 
you  all  know,  expressed  my  conviction  on  this  matter 
exactly  when  he  said  to  me,  "Oh,  yes,  Mr.  Seward, 
we  do  have  changeable  weather  here  sometimes,  as  they 
do  in  the  other  States."  I  might  amend  the  expres- 
sion by  adding,  the  weather  here  is  only  a  little  more 
changeable.  It  must  be  confessed  at  least  that  it  is  an 
honest  climate,  for  it  makes  no  pretensions  to  con- 
stancy. If,  however,  you  have  fewer  bright  sunrises 
and  glowing  sunsets  than  southern  latitudes  enjoy,  you 
are  favored  on  the  other  hand  with  more  frequent  and 
more  magnificent  displays  of  the  aurora  and  the  rain- 
bow. The  thermometer  tells  the  whole  case  when  it 
reports  that  the  summer  is  colder  and  the  winter  is 
warmer  in  Alaska  than  in  New  York  and  Washington. 
It  results  from  the  nature  of  such  a  climate  that  the 
earth  prefers  to  support  the  fir,  the  spruce,  the  pine, 
the  hemlock,  and  other  evergreens,  rather  than  decid- 
uous trees,  and  to  furnish  grasses  and  esculent  roots, 
rather  than  the  cereals  of  drier  and  hotter  climates.  I 
have  mingled  freely  with  the  multifarious  population — 
the  Tongass,  the  Stickeens,  the  Cakes,  the  Hydahs,  the 
Sitkas,  the  Kootznoos,  and  the  Chilcats,  as  well  as  with 
the  traders,  the  soldiers,  the  seamen,  and  the  settlers 
of  various  nationalities,  English,  Swedish,  Russian,  and 


American — and  I  have  seen  all  around  me  only  persons 
enjoying  robust  and  exuberant  health.  Manhood  of 
every  race  and  condition  everywhere  exliibits  activity 
and  energy,  while  infancy  seems  exempt  from  disease 
and  age  relieved  from  pain. 

It  is  next  in  order  to  speak  of  the  rivers  and  seas  of 
Alaska.  The  rivers  arc  broad,  shallow,  and  rapid, 
while  the  seas  are  deep  but  tranquil.  Mr.  Sumner,  in 
his  elaborate  and  magnificent  oration,  although  he 
spake  oily  from  historical  accounts,  has  not  exagge- 
rated— no  man  can  exaggerate — the  marine  treasures 
of  the  Territory.  Beside  the  whale,  which  everywhere 
and  at  all  times  is  seen  enjoying  his  robust  exercise, 
and  the  sea-otter,  the  fur-seal,  the  hair-seal,  and  the 
walrus,  found  in  the  waters  which  embosom  the 
western  islands,  those  waocrs  as  well  as  the  seas  of 
the  eastern  archipelago  are  found  teeming  with  the 
salmon,  cod,  and  other  fishes  adapted  to  the  support 
of  human  and  animal  life.  Indeed,  what  I  have  seen 
here  has  almost  made  me  a  convert  to  the  theory  of 
some  naturalists,  that  the  waters  of  ihe  globe  are  filled 
with  stores  for  the  sustenance  of  animal  life  surpassing 
the  available  productions  of  the  land. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  the  coast  range  of  moun- 
tains, which  begins  in  Mexico,  is  continued  into  the 
Territory,  and  invades  the  seas  of  Alaska.  Hence  it 
is  that  in  the  islands  and  on  the  mainland,  so  far  as  I 
have  explored  it,  we  find  ourselves  everywhere  in  the 
immediate  presence  of  black  hills,  or  foot-hills,  as  they 
are  variously  called,  and  that  these  foot-hills  are  over- 
topped by  ridges  of  snow-capped  mountains.  These 
snow-capped  mountains  arc  manifestly  of  volcanic 
origin,  and  they  have  been  subjected,  through  an  indef- 
inite period,  to  atmospheric  abrasion  and  disintegration. 


•*4 


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persons 

liood  of 

activity 

disease 

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)assing 

mo  un- 
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3  they 
over- 
These 
Icanic 
indef- 
ition. 


Hence  they  have  assumed  all  conceivable  shapes  and 
forms.  In  some  places  they  are  serrated  into  sharp, 
angular  peaks,  and  in  other  places  they  appear  archi- 
tecturally arranged,  so  as  to  present  cloud-cupp  ^  '^as- 
tles,  towers,  domes,  and  minarets.  The  mountain  si  les 
are  furrowed  with  deep  and  straight  ravines,  down 
which  the  thawing  fields  of  ice  and  snow  ai  a  precip- 
itated, ger  v.i'y  in  the  month  of  May,  with  such  a 
vehemence  as  to  have  produced  in  every  valley  im- 
mense level  plains  of  intervale  land.  These  plains,  as 
well  as  the  sides  of  the  mountains,  almost  to  the  sum- 
mits, are  covered  with  forests  so  dense  and  dark  as  to 
be  impenetrable,  except  to  wild  beasts  and  savage 
huntsmen.  On  the  lowest  intervale  land  the  cotton- 
wood  grows.  It  seems  to  be  the  species  of  poplar 
which  is  known  in  the  Atlantic  States  as  the  Balm  of 
Gilead,  and  which  is  dwarfed  on  the  Rocky  Mountains. 
Here  it  takes  on  such  large  dimensions,  that  the  Indian 
shapes  out  of  a  single  trunk  even  his  great  war  canoe 
which  safely  bears  over  the  deepest  waters  a  phalanx 
of  sixty  warriors.  These  imposing  trees  always  appear 
to  rise  out  of  a  jungle  of  elder,  alder,  crab-apple,  and 
other  fruit-bearing  shrubs  and  bushes.  The  short  and 
slender  birch,  which,  sparsely  scattered,  marks  the 
verge  of  vegetation  in  Labrador,  has  not  yet  been 
reached  by  the  explorers  of  Alaska.  The  birch  tree 
sometimes  appears  here  upon  the  river  side,  upon  the 
level  next  above  the  home  of  the  cottonwood,  and  is 
generally  found  a  comely  and  stately  tree.  The  forests 
of  Alaska,  however,  consist  mainly  neither  of  shrubs, 
nor  of  the  birch,  nor  of  the  cottonwood,  but,  as  I  have 
already  intimated,  of  the  pine,  the  cedar,  the  cypress, 
the  spruce,  the  fir,  the  larch,  and  the  hemlock.  These 
forests  begin  almost  at  the  water's  edge,  and  they  rise 


8 


with  regular  gradation  to  a  height  of  two  thousand  feet. 
The  trees,  nowhere  dwarfed  or  diminutive,  attain  the 
highest  dimensions  in  sunny  exposures  in  the  deeper 
canons  or  gorges  of  the  mountains.  The  cedar,  some- 
times called  the  yellow  cedar,  and  sometimes  the  fra- 
grant cedar,  was  long  ago  imported  into  China  as  an 
ornamental  wood:  and  it  now  furnishes  the  majestic 
beams  and  pillars  with  which  the  richer  and  more  am- 
bitious native  chief  delights  to  construct  his  rude  but 
spacious  hall  or  palatial  residence,  and  upon  which  he 
carves  in  rude  symbolical  imagery  the  heraldry  of  his 
tribe  and  achievements  of  his  nation.  No  beam,  or  pil- 
lar, or  spar,  or  mast,  or  plank  is  ever  required  in  either 
the  land  or  the  naval  architecture  of  any  civilized  State 
greater  in  length  and  width  than  the  trees  which  can 
be  hewn  down  on  the  coasts  of  the  islands  and  rivers 
here,  and  conveyed  directly  thence  by  navigation.  A 
few  gardens,  fields,  and  meadows,  have  been  attempted 
by  natives  in  some  of  the  settlements,  and  by  soldiers 
at  the  military  posts,  with  most  encouraging  results. 
Nor  must  we  forget  that  the  native  grasses,  ripening 
late  in  a  humid  climate,  preserve  their  nutritive  prop- 
erties, though  exposed,  while  the  climate  is  so  mild 
that  cattle  and  horses  require  but  slight  provision  of 
shelter  during  the  winter. 

Such  is  the  island  and  coast  portion  of  Eastern 
Alaska.  Kla-kautch,  the  Chilcat,  who  is  known  and 
feared  by  the  Indians  throughout  the  whole  Territory, 
and  who  is  a  very  intelligent  chief,  informs  me,  that 
beyond  the  mountain  range,  which  intervenes  between 
the  Chilcat  and  the  Youkon  rivers,  you  descend  into  a 
plain  unbroken  by  hills  or  mountains,  very  fertile,  in 
a  genial  climate,  and,  as  far  as  he  could  learn,  of 
boundless  extent.     We  have  similar  information  from 


' 


9 


those  who  have  traversed  the  interior  from  the  shore 
of  the  Portland  canal  to  the  upper  branches  of  the 
Youkon.  We  have  reason,  therefore,  to  believe  that 
beyond  the  coast  range  of  mountains  in  Alaska  we 
shall  find  an  extension  of  the  rich  and  habitable  valley 
lands  of  Oregon,  Washington  Territory,  and  British 
Columbia. 

After  what  I  have  already  said,  I  may  excuse  myself 
from  expatiating  on  the  animal  productions  of  the  for- 
est. The  elk  and  the  deer  are  so  plenty  as  to  be  under- 
valued for  food  or  skins,  by  natives  as  well  as  strangers. 
The  bear  of  many  families — black,  grizzly,  and  cinna- 
mon ;  the  mountain  sheep,  inestimable  for  his  fleece ; 
the  wolf,  the  fox,  the  beaver,  the  otter,  the  mink,  the 
raccoon,  the  marten,  the  ermine ;  the  squirrel — gray, 
black,  brown,  and  flying,  are  among  the  land  fur-bear- 
ing animals.  The  furs  thus  found  here  have  been  the 
chief  element,  for  more  than  a  hundred  years,  of  the 
profitable  commerce  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company, 
whose  mere  possessory  privileges  seem,  even  at  this 
late  day,  too  costly  to  find  a  ready  purchaser.  This 
fur-trade,  together  with  the  sea  fur-trade  within  the 
Territory,  were  the  sole  basis  alike  of  Russian  com- 
merce and  empire  on  this  continent.  This  commerce 
was  so  large  ai.d  important  as  to  induce  the  Govern- 
ments of  Russia  and  China  to  build  and  maintain  a 
town  for  carryiiig  on  its  exchanges  in  Tartaiy  on  the 
border  of  the  two  empires.  It  is  well  understood  that 
the  supply  of  furs  in  Alaska  has  not  diminished,  while 
the  demand  for  them  in  China  and  elsewhere  has  im- 
mensely increased. 

I  fear  that  we  must  confess  to  a  failure  of  ice  as  an 
element  of  territorial  wealth,  at  least  as  far  as  this 
immediate  region  is  concerned.     I  find  that  the  Rus- 


10 


sian  American  Company,  whose  monopoly  was  abol- 
ished by  the  treaty  of  acquisition,  depended  for  ice 
exclusively  upon  the  small  lake  or  natural  pond  which 
furnishes  the  power  for  your  saw-mill  in  this  town, 
and  that  this  dependence  has  now  failed  by  reason  of 
the  increasing  mildness  of  the  winter.  The  California 
Ice  Company  are  now  trying  the  small  lakes  of  Kodiac, 
and  certainly  I  wish  them  success.  I  think  it  is  not 
yet  ascertained  whether  glacier  ice  is  pure  anu  practi- 
cal for  commerce.  If  it  is,  the  world  may  be  supplied 
from  the  glaciers,  which,  suspended  from  the  region  of 
the  clouds,  stand  forth  in  the  majesty  of  ever-wasting 
and  ever-renewed  translucent  mountains  upon  the 
banks  of  the  Stickeen  and  Chilcat  rivers  and  the  shores 
of  Cross  sound. 

Alaska  has  been  as  yet  but  imperfectly  explored. 
But  enough  is  known  to  assure  us  that  it  possesses 
treasures  of  what  are  called  the  baser  ores  equal  to 
those  of  any  other  region  of  the  continent.  We  have 
Copper  island  and  Copper  river,  so  named  as  the  places 
where  the  natives,  before  the  period  of  the  Russian 
discovery,  had  procured  the  pure  metal  from  which 
they  fabricated  instruments  of  war  and  legendery 
shields.  In  regard  to  iron,  the  question  seems  to  be 
not  where  it  can  be  found,  but  whether  there  is  any 
place  where  it  doea  not  exist.  Mr.  Davidson,  of  the. 
Coast  Survey,  invited  me  to  go  up  to  him  at  the  sta- 
tion he  had  taken  up  the  Chilcat  river  to  make  his 
observations  of  the  eclipse,  by  writing  me  that  he  had 
discovered  an  iron  mountain  there.  When  I  came 
there  I  found  that,  very  properly,  he  had  been  study- 
ing the  heavens  so  busily,  that  he  had  but  cursorily 
examined  the  earth  under  his  feet ;  that  it  was  not  a 
single  iron  mountain  he  had  discovered,  but  a  range  of 


11 


hills,  the  very  dust  of  which  adheres  to  the  magnet, 
while  the  range  itselT,  two  thousand  feet  high,  extends 
along  the  east  bank  of  the  river  thirty  miles.  Lime- 
stone and  marble  crop  out  on  the  banks  of  the  same 
river  and  in  many  other  places.  Coal-beds,  accessible 
to  navigation,  are  found  at  Kootznoo.  It  is  said,  how- 
ever, that  the  concentrated  resin  which  the  mineral 
contains  renders  it  too  inflammable  to  be  safely  used 
by  steamers.  In  any  case,  it  would  seem  calculated  to 
supply  the  fuel  requisite  for  the  manufacture  of  iron. 
What  seems  to  be  excellent  cannel  coal  is  also  found 
in  the  Prince  of  Wales  archipelago.  There  are  also 
mines  at  Cook's  inlet.  Placer  and  quartz  gold  mining 
is  pursued  under  many  social  disadvantages  upon  the 
Stickeen  and  elsewhere,  with  a  degree  of  success  which, 
while  it  does  not  warrant  us  in  assigning  a  superiority 
in  that  respect  to  the  Territory,  does  nevertheless  war- 
rant us  in  regarding  gold  mining  as  an  established  and 
reliable  resource. 

It  would  argue  inexcusable  insensibility  if  I  should 
fail  to  speak  of  the  scenery  which,  in  the  course  of  my 
voyage,  has  seemed  to  pass  like  a  varied  and  magnifi- 
cent panorama  before  me.  The  exhibition  did  not, 
indeed,  open  within  the  Territory.  It  broke  upon  me 
first  when  I  had  passed  Cape  Flattery  and  entered  the 
Straits  of  Fuca,  which  separate  British  Columbia  from 
Washington  Territory.  It  widened  as  I  passed  along 
the  shore  of  Puget  Sound,  expanded  in  the  waters 
which  divide  Vancouver  from  the  continent,  and  finally 
spread  itself  out  into  a  magnificent  archipelago,  stretch- 
ing through  the  entire  Gulf  of  Alaska,  and  closing  un- 
der the  shade  ^'  Mounts  Fairweather  and  St.  Elias. 
Nature  has  furnished  to  this  majestic  picture  the  only 
suitable  border  which  could  be  conceived,  by  lifting  the 


12 


coast  range  mountains  to  an  exalted  height,  and  cloth- 
ing them  with  eternal  snows  and  crystalline  glaciers. 

It  remains  only  to  speak  of  man  and  of  society  in 
Alaska.  Until  the  present  moment  the  country  has 
been  exclusively  inhabited  and  occupied  by  some  thirty 
or  more  Indian  tribes.  I  incliie  to  doubt  the  popular 
classification  of  these  tribes,  upon  the  assumption  that 
they  have  descended  from  diverse  races.  Climate  and 
other  circumstances  have  indeed  produced  some  differ- 
ences of  manners  and  customs  between  the  Aleuts, 
the  Koloschians,  and  the  interior  continental  tribes. 
But  all  of  them  are  manifesth  of  Mongol  origin.  Al- 
though they  have  preserved  no  common  traditions,  all 
alike  indulge  in  tastes,  wear  a  physiognomy,  and  are 
imbued  with  sentiments  peculiarly  noticed  in  Japan 
and  China.  Savage  communities,  no  less  than  civilized 
nations,  require  spice  for  subsistence,  whether  they 
depend  for  it  upon  the  land  or  upon  the  sea — in  savage 
communities  especially;  and  increase  of  population  dis- 
proportioned  to  the  supplies  of  the  country  occupied 
necessitates  subdivision  and  remote  colonization.  Op- 
pression and  cruelty  occur  even  more  frequently  among 
barbarians  than  among  civilized  men.  Nor  are  ambi- 
tion and  faction  less  inherent  in  the  one  condition  than 
in  the  other.  From  these  causes  it  has  happened  that 
the  25, 000  Indians  in  Alaska  are  found  permanently 
divided  into  so  many  insignificant  nations.  These  na- 
tions are  jealous,  ambitious,  and  violent ;  could  in  no 
case  exist  long  in  the  same  region  without  mutually  af- 
fording V,  hat,  in  every  case,  to  each  party,  seems  just 
cause  of  war.  War  between  savages  becomes  the  private 
cause  of  the  several  families  which  are  afflicted  with  the 
loss  of  their  members.  Such  a  war  can  never  be  composed 
until  each  family  which  has  suffered  receives  an  indem- 


18 


nity  in  blankets,  adjusted  according  to  an  imaginary 
tariff,  or,  in  the  failure  of  such  compensation,  secures 
the  death  of  one  or  more  enemies  as  an  atonement  for 
the  injury  it  has  sustained.  The  enemy  captured, 
whether  by  superior  force  or  stategy,  either  receives 
no  quarter,  or  submits  for  himself  and  his  progeny  to 
perpetual  slavery.  It  has  thus  happened  that  the  In- 
dian tribes  of  Alaska  have  never  either  confederated 
or  formed  permanent  alliances,  and  that  even  at  this 
late  day,  in  the  presence  of  superior  power  exercised 
by  the  United  States  Government,  they  live  in  regard 
to  each  other  in  a  state  of  enforced  and  doubtful  truce. 
It  is  manifest  that,  under  these  circumstances,  they 
must  steadily  decline  in  numbers,  and  unhappily  this 
decline  is  accelerated  by  their  borrowing  ruinous  vices 
from  the  white  man.  Such  as  the  natives  of  Alaska 
are,  they  are,  nevertheless,  in  a  practical  sense,  the 
only  laborers  at  present  in  the  Territory.  The  white 
man  comes  amongst  them  from  London,  from  St.  Pe- 
tersburg, from  Boston,  from  New  York,  from  San 
Francis- "■  and  from  Victoria,  not  to  fish  (if  we  except 
alone  the  w^hale  fishery)  or  to  hunt,  but  simply  to  buy 
what  fish  and  what  peltries,  ice,  wood,  lumber,  and 
coal,  the  Indians  have  secured  under  the  superintend- 
ence of  temporary  agents  or  factors.  When  we  con- 
sider how  greatly  most  of  the  tribes  are  reduced  in 
numbers,  and  how  precarious  their  vocations  are,  we 
shall  cease  to  regard  them  as  indolent  or  incapable; 
and,  on  the  contrary,  we  shall  more  deeply  regret  than 
ever  before,  that  a  people  so  gifted  by  nature,  so  vig- 
orous and  energetic,  and  withal  so  docile  and  gentle 
in  their  intercourse  with  the  white  man,  can  neither  be 
preserved  as  a  distinct  social  community,  nor  incorpo- 
rated into  our  society.     The  Indian  tribes  will  do  here 


14 


as  they  seem  to  have  done  in  "Washington  Territory 
and  British  Columbia  :  they  will  merely  serve  the  turn 
until  civilized  white  men  come. 

You,  the  citizens  of  Sitka,  are  the  pioneers,  the 
advanced  guard,  of  the  future  population  of  Alaska ; 
and  you  naturally  ask  when,  from  whence,  and  how 
soon,  reinforcements  shall  come,  and  what  are  the  signs 
and  guaranties  of  their  coming?  This  question,  with 
all  its  minute  and  searching  interrogations,  has  been 
asked  by  the  pioneers  of  every  State  and  Territory  of 
which  the  American  Union  is  now  composed ;  and  the 
history  of  those  States  and  Territories  furnishes  the 
complete,  conclusive,  and  satisfactory  answer.  Emi- 
grants go  to  every  infant  State  and  Territory  in  obe- 
dience to  the  great  natural  law  that  obliges  needy  men 
to  seek  subsistence,  and  invites  adventurous  men  to 
seek  fortune  where  it  is  most  easily  obtained,  and  this 
is  always  in  the  new  and  uncultivated  regions.  They 
go  from  every  State  and  Territory,  and  from  every 
foreign  nation  in  America,  Europe,  and  Asia ;  because 
no  established  and  populous  State  or  nation  can  guar- 
anty subsistence  and  fortune  to  all  who  demand  them 
among  its  inhabitants. 

The  guaranties  and  signs  of  their  coming  to  Alaska 
are  found  in  the  resources  of  the  Territory,  which  I 
have  attempted  to  describe,  and  in  the  condition  of 
society  in  other  parts  of  the  world.  Some  men  seek 
other  climes  for  health  and  some  for  pleasure.  Alaska 
invites  the  former  class  by  a  clima.e  singularly  salu- 
brious, and  the  latter  class  by  scenery  which  surpasses 
in  sublimity  that  of  either  the  Alps,  the  Apennines, 
the  Alleghanies,  or  the  Rocky  Mountains.  Emigrants 
from  our  own  States,  from  Europe,  and  from  Asia,  will 
not  be  slow  in  finding  out  that  fortunes  are  to  be 


15 


gained  by  pursuing  here  the  occupations  which  have 
so  successfully  sustained  races  of  untutored  men.     Civ- 
ilization and  refinement  are  making  more  rapid  ad- 
vances in  our  day  than  at  any  former  period.     The 
rising  States  and  nations  on  this  continent,  the  Euro- 
pean nations,  and  even  those  of  Eastern  Asia,  have 
exhausted,  or  are  exhausting,  their  own  forests  and 
mines,  and  are  soon  to  become  largely  dependent  upon 
those  of  the   Pacific.     The   entire  region  of  Oregon, 
Washington  Territory,  British  Columbia,  and  Alaska, 
seem  thus  destined  to  become  a  ship-yard  for  the  sup- 
ply of  all  nations.     I  do  not  forget  on  this  occasion 
that  British  Columbia  belongs  within  a  foreign  juris- 
diction.    That  circumstance  does  not  materially  affect 
my  calculations.     British  Columbia,   by  whomsoever 
possessed,  must  be  governed  in  conformity  with  the 
interests  of  her  people  and  of  society  upon  the  Ameri- 
can continent.     If  that  Territory  shall  be  so  governed, 
there  will  be  no  ground  of  complaint  anywhere.     If  it 
shall  be  governed  so  as  to  conflict  with  the  interests  of 
the  inhabitants  of  that  Territory  and  of  the  United 
States,  we  all  can  easily  forsee  what  will  happen  in 
that  case.     You  will  ask  me,  however,  for  guaranties 
that  the  hopes  I  encourage  will  not  be  postponed.     I 
give  them. 

Within  the  period  of  my  own  recollection,  I  hav^e 
seen  twenty  new  States  added  to  the  eighteen  which 
before  that  time  constituted  the  American  Union,  and 
I  now  see,  besides  Alaska,  ten  Territories  in  a  forward 
condition  of  preparation  for  entering  into  the  same 
great  political  family.  I  have  seen  in  my  own  time 
not  only  the  first  electric  telegraph,  but  even  the  first 
railroad  and  the  first  steamboat  invented  by  man.  And 
even  on  this  present  voyage  of  mine,  I  have  fallen  in 


16 

with  the  first  steamboat,  still  afloat,  that  thirty-five 
years  ago  lighted  her  fires  on  the  Pacific  ocean.  These, 
citizens  of  Sitka,  are  the  guaranties,  not  only  that 
Alaska  has  a  future,  but  that  that  future  has  already 
begun.  I  know  that  you  want  two  things  just  now, 
when  European  monopoly  is  broken  down  and  United 
States  free  trade  is  being  introduced  within  the  Terri- 
tory :  These  are,  military  protection  while  your  num- 
ber is  so  inferior  to  that  of  the  Indians  around  you, 
and  you  need  also  a  territorial  civil  government. 
Congress  has  already  supplied  the  first  of  these  wants 
adequately  and  tfectually.  I  doubt  not  that  it  will 
supply  the  other  want  during  the  coming  winter.  It 
must  do  this,  because  our  political  system  rejects  alike 
anarchy  and  executive  absolutism.  Nor  do  I  doubt 
that  the  political  society  to  be  constituted  here,  first  as 
a  Territory,  and  ultimately  as  a  State  or  many  States, 
will  prove  a  worthy  constituency  of  the  Republic.  To 
doubt  that  it  will  be  intelligent,  virtuous,  prosperous, 
and  enterprising,  is  to  doubt  the  experience  of  Scot- 
land, Denmark,  Sweden,  Holland,  and  Belgium,  and 
of  New  England  and  New  York.  Nor  do  I  doubt  that 
it  will  be  forever  true  in  its  republican  instincts  and 
loyal  to  the  American  Union,  for  the  inhabitants  will 
be  both  mountaineers  and  sea-faring  men.  I  am  not 
among  those  who  apprehend  infidelity  to  liberty  and 
the  Union  in  any  quarter  hereafter,  but  I  am  sure  that 
if  constancy  and  loyalty  are  to  fail  anywhere,  the  fail- 
ure will  not  be  in  the  States  which  approach  nearest 
to  the  north  pole. 

Fellow-citizens,  accept  once  more  my  thanks,  from 
the  heart  of  my  heart,  for  kindnesses  which  can  never 
be  forgotten,  and  suffer  me  to  leave  you  with  a  sincere 
and  earnest  farewell. 


■  ■n  r"   "i'li 


:ssG 


MR.  SEWARD'S  SPEECH  AT  VICTORIA. 

At  a  banquet  given  to  !»ir.  Seward  at  Victoria,  he 
spoke  as  follows : 

Gentlemen  :  You  are  aware  that  if  my  preference 
could  have  been  consulted,  this  would  have  been  a 
private,  instead  of  a  public,  entertainment.  The  assev- 
erations of  loyalty  which  I  hear  on  both  sides,  from 
British  subjects  and  resident  Americans,  admonish  us 
that  we  are  liable  to  be  misunderstood,  as  assuming 
to  speak  for  our  respective  nations  in  a  diplomatic 
character.  Give  me  your  assent,  therefore,  to  a  few 
preliminaries.  First,  that  the  loyalty  of  British  sub- 
jects here  is  fully  acknowledged  and  respected  on  my 
part.  Having  derived  my  existence  through  a  long 
line  of  British  ancestors,  including  my  father  and  mo- 
ther, I  am  not  likely,  here  or  elsewhere,  to  disparage 
my  lineage  of  their  race.  On  the  other  hand,  I  freely 
confess  that  it  is  my  political  ambition  to  see  the 
United  States  of  America,  of  which  I  am  a. native  citi- 
Z'-n,  transcend  even  the  British  nation  in  civil  and 
religious  liberty,  and  usefulness  to  the  human  race. 
Neither  Gcwernnjents  nor  peoples  are  particularly 
pleased  when  they  find  private  citizens  attempthig  to 
withdraw  their  national  dillerences  from  the  control  of 
constitutional  agents  and  adjust  them  with  indecorous 
haste  at  provincial  dinner  tables.  We  will,  therefore, 
leave  the  Puget  Sound  Agricultural  question,  the  San 
Juan  boundary,  the  Canadian  Reciprocity,  and  the  Ala- 
bama claims  to  our  respective  and  respected  Govern- 
ments. I  have  never  heard  an}^  person,  on  either  side  of 
the  United  States  border,  assert  that  British  Columbia 
is  not  a  part  of  the  American  continent,  or  that  its  peo- 
ple have  or  can  have  any  interest,  material,  moral,  or 
social,  different  from  the  common  interests  of  all  Amer- 


18 

can   nations.     Discoverers,   indeed,  must  limit  their 
pretensions  b}'  rivers  or  nioiiiitiiiiis  wliieli  they  rcacli, 
;ind  adjacent  States  must  fix  their  boundaries  as  tliey 
•an  agree.     Nevertlieloss,  all  contiguous  iStates  have 
mutual  and  intimate  relations,  wiiich  require  harmony, 
if  not  concert,  between  them.     Upon  these  their  citi- 
zens can  consult  with  each  other  without  giving  just 
cause  of  ofl'ense.     I  have  heard  in  Victoria  regrets  of 
an  abatement  in  industrial  enterprise  in  the  province, 
resulting  from  a  disai)pointment  of  high-wrought  ex- 
pectations of  gold  mining  on  the  Frazer  river.     These 
regrets  have  seemed  to  indicate  something  of  despond- 
ency.    It  is  not  a  special  object  of  my  present  journey 
to  study  British  Columbia.     The  real  object  is  to  study 
the  Pacific   coast  region  of  the   American  continent, 
with  more  particular  reference  to  the  United  States. 
With   this   purpose  I  left  the  sea  at  Cape  Flattery, 
passed  through  the  Straits  of  Juan  de  Fuca,  traversed 
Puget  Sound   and   Washington  Territory,  and  thence 
made  my  way   by  the   interior   passages  tlirough  the 
waters  of  British  Columbia  to  the  sixtieth  parallel  in 
Alaska.     At     o  time  was  I  ha/dly  beyond  hailing  dis- 
tance from  the  mainland  ,and  yet  my  excursion  was  a 
continuous  voyage  of  one  thousand  two  hundred  miles, 
through  one  cojistant  and  beautiful  archipelago,     i  oc- 
casionally looked  up  the  continental  rivers  far  enough 
to  see  that  mainland  and  islands  uniformly  presented 
the  same  features — features  which  indicate  the  pres- 
ence of  the  precious  as  well  as  the  baser  metals  in  the 
mountains,  fishes  abounding  in  the  seas,  furs  abounding 
in  the  lands  and  waters,  and  evergreen  forests,  useful 
for  all  the  purposes  of  land  and  naval  architecture, 
still  more    abounding.       'J  his  whole    region  I   found 
to  be  unique  and  inseparable  in   regard  to  the   de- 


19 

volopmont  of  its  rich  resources.  T  venture  to  call 
it  by  Olio  cominou  iianio,  the  Nortli  Piicific  American 
coast;  and  I  venture  to  predict  that  in  its  entire  length 
and  breadth,  extending  from  tlie  banks  of  the  Colum- 
bia river,  in  Oregon,  to  Mount  St.  Elias,  in  Alaska,  it 
will  become  immediately  a  common  ship-yard  for  the 
American  continent,  and  speedily  for  the  whole  world. 
Europe,  Asia,  South  America,  and  even  the  Atlantic 
American  States,  have  either  exhausted  or  are  ex- 
hausting their  native  supplies  of  timber  and  lumber. 
Their  hist  and  only  resort  must  be  to  the  North  Pacific 
region  I  have  described.  I  noticed  with  pleasure  and 
without  surprise  the  beginning  of  a  whale  fishery  in 
Puget  Sound,  and  T  discou'^sed  in  the  Spanish  language 
with  lumber  traders  from  Cliili.  The  scenes  of  indus- 
try I  witnessed  along  the  sound  astonished  me  when 
I  reflected  that  the  entire  population  of  Washington 
Territory  is  only  eight  thousand  souls.  The  European 
emigrant  has  hardly  reached  that  coast,  and  the  Chinese 
are  scarcely  known  there.  In  their  absence  the  In- 
dians seemed  to  be  assuming  the  habits  of  civilization, 
in  obedience  to  an  extraordinary  demand  for  labor. 
Sagacious  persons  in  the  Atlaniic  States  and  in  Europe 
were  before  me  in  apprehending  this  interesting  con- 
dition of  things,  and  I  think  in  foreseeing  the  destiny 
of  the  North  Pacific  shores.  They  had  already  pro- 
jected railroa<ls  calculated  to  concentrate  the  necessary 
labor  upon  the  shores  of  Puget  Sound,  where  the 
steamboats  are  ready  to  distribute  it  throughout  the 
whole  archipelago.  This  distribution  is  inevitable. 
The  lumber  and  metals  of  Puget  Sound  are  indeed 
vast  and  magnilicent.  They  might  for  a  time  supply 
tiie  local  demand  of  the  Pacific  American  shore,  but 
they  are  altogether  inadequate  to  the  wider  commer- 


20 

cial  demand  which  is  nhoady  hop;iiiniti«!;  to  props  upon 
us.  Ahiska  has  storeys  tar  surpnssiii;:;  in  extent  and 
variety  those  of  Pujijet  Sound,  Washin«;t()n,  and  Orejuon. 
Nor  is  British  Cohinibia  either  (h'stitute  or  inferior  in 
the  same  natural  resources.  British  Coluinhia,  tiieie- 
fore,  wants  nothing  that  is  not  wanted  also  in  Oregon, 
Washington,  and  Ahiska — popuhition  and  cnpital.  Of 
these  two,  population  alwnys  goes  first,  and  cnpitul 
speedily  follows.  Into  this  broad  field  of  activity  and 
enterprise  I  take  the  liberty  to  invite  the  j)eople  of 
British  Columbia  to  enter,  as  copartners  if  they  will, 
as  rivals  if  they  must.  I  pray  you,  gentlemen,  to  con- 
sider that  the  long  ages,  when  communities  pervaded 
by  common  interests  could  be  separated  in  their  com- 
merce, have  come  to  an  end.  Steam  on  land  and  sea 
and  the  electric  telegra[)h  have  leveled  the  mountains 
and  bridged  the  ocean.  Japan,  Chiiia,  and  Australia, 
are  already  adjacent,  and  commercially  bound  to  the 
American  Pacific  coast.  Only  two  works  remain  to 
connect  Europe  and  the  Atlantic  coast  completely  and 
indissolubly  with  the  same  great  Pacific  coast,  the  ex- 
tinguishment of  the  colonial  system  of  continental 
Europe  in  the  West  Indies,  and  the  construction  of  a 
ship  canal,  adequate  to  modern  navigation,  across  the 
Isthmus  of  Darien.  I  find  myself,  gentlemen,  tempted 
to  transgress  the  bounds  of  your  courteous  patience. 
My  entrance  into  Victoria  a  month  ago  was  a  bewil- 
derment, resulting  from  the  encountering  only  of 
strangers.  My  parting  from  it  is  not  unattended  with 
regret,  because  I  seem  to  be  leaving  only  assured  and 
tried  friends.  Accept  my  thanks  for  your  generous 
hospitalities,  together  with  the  assurance  of  my  earnest 
desire  for  the  welfare  of  British  Columbia  and  for  your 
individual  prosperity  and  happiness. 


i.tMtM^<MMH<WMi;«>W<M 


MR.  SEWARD'S  SPEECH  IN  SALEM,  OREGON. 

Tllo  older  States,  situated  eastward  of  the  Missoiiii 
and  below  die  base  of  the  Hoeky  Mountains,  have 
complete  industiial,  social,  and  political  systems,  and 
fixed  habits.  The  traveller  there  is  intrusive  if,  under 
any  persuasion,  he  attempts  to  speak  of  their  peculiar 
resources,  policies,  or  duties.  Deference  to  this  prin- 
ciple determined  me,  when  I  left  Auburn,  to  nuike  no 
wayside  speeches  during  my  present  journey.  The 
magnet,  when  brought  into  the  presence  of  iron,  finds 
it  no  harder  to  maintain  its  own  [)olarity  than  I  have 
found  it  to  adhere  to  my  prudent  resolution  ever  since 
I  passed  the  banks  of  the  Mississippi.  I  am  travelling 
in  regions  grand  and  vast,  but  comparatively  new,  and 
among  communities  incom[)letely  organized,  needful  of 
immigration  and  capital,  and  therefore  ambitious  that 
their  resoui'ces,  advantages,  and  attractions  may  be 
made  known.  Art  has  seldom  produced  a  more  striking 
picture  than  the  abandoned  infant  Hercules  defending 
himself  against  serpents  in  his  cradle,  llow  poor  that 
admired  concei)tion  appears  when  contrasted  with  the 
precarious  but  encigetic  and  successful  vigor  and 
energy  of  emigrants  from  the  Atlantic  shores  settling 
and  establishing  new  States — members  of  the  American 
Kepublic — in  the  native  forests,  wildernesses,  and  des- 
erts which  extend  across  the  American  continent! 
Relying  upon  their  own  t  ergies,  as  all  the  States  of 
this  Union  at  every  stage  '  .  their  existence  must  rely, 
they  disdain  the  sympathy  of  i>ll  foreign  nations.  Do 
thev  require  too  much  in  asking  that  their  capacities 
and  loyalty  to  the  Union  shall  be  known  and  appre- 
ciated? 1  early  accepte '  and  continually  held  fast  to 
these  several  political  convictions:  1st,  That  if  a  nation 


/' 


I 


3  ; 


22 

desires  to  be  independent  and  prosperous,  and  enjoy 
peace  at  liome  and  abroad,  it  must  expand  itself 
comraensurately  with  its  resources  and  advantages. 
2d,  That  human  bondage  is  incompatible  with  a  suc- 
cessful republic.  3d,  That  the  permanent  continuance 
of  European  or  monarchical  government  in  the  Ameri- 
can hemisphere  would  be  injurious  and  dangerous  to 
the  United  States.  4th,  That  in  the  expansion  of  the 
Republic,  the  establishment  and  acceptance  of  new 
Spates,  on  the  same  footing  as  the  original  States,  is 
essential  for  the  security  of  civil  and  religious  liberty. 
I  seem,  indeed,  to  myself,  to  have  lived  chiefly  for  the 
purpose  of  laboring  to  'l^fend  an  inchoate  republic 
against  external  and  internal  dangers,  and  to  expand 
it  upon  the  principles  I  have  mentioned.  Let  the 
world  judge,  then,  of  the  satisfaction  I  enjoy  in  wit- 
nessing the  success  of  this  policy,  and  of  the  gratitude 
I  feel  in  being  so  kindly  received  here,  at  the  capital 
of  the  new  State  of  Oregon,  as  I  have  been  received 
before  at  the  capitals  of  the  other  new  States  and  Ter- 
ritories which  I  have  visited.  You  will  excuse  mo,  if 
the  habit  of  nationality  of  thougiit  and  reasoning 
which  I  have  contracted  has  rendered  me  incapable  oi' 
considering  Oregon  as  an  isolated  State,  or  of  separat- 
ing my  ideas  of  her  condition  and  products  from  tlie 
general  ideas  which  I  have  formed  of  all  the  States  and 
Territories,  mutually  connected  with  each  otiier,  and 
subordinate  in  their  proper  relations  as  parts  of  tiie 
whole  United  States.  In  California  there  is  no  louirer 
need  for  external  encoiu-agement.  The  highest  ex- 
pectiitions  of  its  settlers  have  not  uiijustly  ripened  into 
absolute  assurance.  San  Francisco  is  lirmly  established 
as  the  Constantinople  of  American  empire,  and  Cali- 
fornia exercises  fully  and  wisely  an  important  political 


23 


!r 


influence  in  the  United  States  and  throughout  the 
world.  The  other  new  States  and  Territories  have  not 
yet  secured  an  equal  position.  The  dwellers  in  these 
States  are  continually  asking  of  every  visitor,  "What 
do  you  think  we  shall  be,  and  when?"  I  must  answer 
with  the  same  confidence  which,  among  men  of  little 
faith,  has  sometimes  procured  for  me  the  character  of 
an  optimist.  Kansas,  in  her  infancy  the  Cinderella, 
has  already  become  a  leading  and  effective  member 
of  the  political  family  by  which  she  was  despised. 
Nebraska,  standing  upon  the  west  side  of  the  Missouri, 
has  seized  the  railroads  of  the  Atlantic  States,  and 
welded  and  riveted  them  with  the  system  of  railroads 
which  has  successfully  begun  to  traverse  and  ramify 
the  States  and  Territories  of  the  Pacific  shore.  Wyo- 
ming, Colorado,  and  New  Mexico,  surmounting  Indian 
troubles  and  reckless  speculations,  have  reached  a  point 
of  civil  and  social  esuiblishment  from  which  it  need  not 
be  feared  they  will  recede.  I  have  not  3'et  been  able 
to  visit  Arizona,  but  I  have  learned  enough  of  Mon- 
tana, Idaho,  and  Utah,  to  know  that  they  are  reason- 
ably assured  of  a  successful  and  prosperous  career. 
Nevada,  although  politically  separated  from  California, 
is  a  full  sharer  in  her  rising  prosperity  and  greatness. 
Considerations  of  convenience,  not  choice,  cariied  me 
northward  before  I  was  able  to  visit  Oregon.  The 
Territories  of  Washir.gton  and  Alaska,  extending  (with 
the  exception  of  British  Columbia)  from  the  forty-ninth 
parallel  of  latitude  along  the  islands  and  coasts  of 
America  to  the  Arctic  ocean,  are,  as  might  be  expected, 
feebler  than  the  more  southern  States  and  Territories. 
Nevertheless,  I  realized,  if  indeed  I  did  not  discover,  in 
those  Territories  a  new,  peculiar,  and  nnignilicont  field 
of  commerce  and  empire,     i  found  one  continuous  and 


24 


expanding  archipelago  along  the  coast,  from  the  base 
of  Pugot  Sound,  in  Washington,  to  Mount  St.  Elias,  in 
Alaska.  I  found  land  and  sea  teeming  with  provisions 
for  the  subsistence  of  a  population  adequate  to  bring 
the  marine,  mineral,  animal,  and  vegetable  resources 
of  that  remote  and  secluded  region  into  a  productive 
State.  The  neglected  portion  of  the  country  furnishes 
even  now,  to  refineu  nations  in  northern  climates,  the 
furs  which,  from  considerations  of  need  and  of  luxury, 
they  continually  demand.  No  metal  used  in  arts  or 
commerce  is  absent  there.  The  forests  are  luxuriant, 
universal,  and  inexhaustible.  When  I  saw  British, 
Chinese,  and  Chilian,  as  well  as  American  vessels, 
bearing  away  the  timber  and  lumber,  with  difficulty 
wrested  from  the  wasting  fires  of  the  sumniei  by  the 
feeblest  of  all  American  populations,  and  conveying 
them  away  to  be  used  in  civil  and  naval  architecture 
on  both  sides  of  the  Pacific  ocean,  I  needed  no  other 
suggestion  of  the  fact  that  I  had  reached  that  very 
place  where,  within  the  period  of  an  early  future,  the 
navies,  mercantile  and  prmed,  of  America,  and  even 
of  the  world,  are  to  be  built.  Knowing  the  import- 
Hnce  of  ship-building  and  navigation  in  every  stage  of 
civilization,  my  mind  was  expanded  with  wonder  and 
admiration  of  the  ultimate  prosperity  and  greatness  of 
the  north  Pacific  coast. 

Although  British  Columbia  remains,  as  Oregon  not 
long  ago  was,  and  as  the  region  west  of  the  Mississippi 
so  recently  was.  and  as  the  whole  of  the  United  States 
once  were, 


ibj( 


)p( 


»wei 


I, 


lever 


less,  found  existing  there  commercial  and  political 
forces  which  render  a  permanent  political  separation  of 
British  Columbia  from  Alaska  and  Washington  Terri- 
tory impossible. 


25 


Of  Washington  Territory,  so  lately  a  part  of  Oregon, 
it  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  here,  that  the  British  trav- 
eller was  not  mistaken,  who,  in  183G,  not  foreseeing  its 
severance  from  the  British  crown,  pronourced  Paget 
Sound  a  base  of  future  empire. 

In  the  State  of  Oregon  I  have  only  explored  the 
Columbia  river  to  the  Dalles,  and  the  Willamette  val- 
ley, in  the  vicinity  of  Portland,  Milwaukee,  Oswego, 
Oregon  City,  Monmouth,  Albany,  Santiam,  and  this 
capital.  No  one  will  accuse  me  of  infidelity  to  New 
York  and  the  other  Atlantic  States,  whether  North  or 
South.  Neverthelesp,  I  shall  not  hesitate,  hereafter, 
to  advise  the  student  in  natural  science,  who  desires  to 
learn  how  islands,  mountains,  and  countries  are  heaved 
up  from  the  deep  ;  how  rivers  are  traced  out,  defined, 
and  run  ;  how  minerals  are  secreted  in  the  earth  ;  and 
how  valleys  are  formed,  spread  out,  and  fertilized,  to 
ascend  the  Columbia  river  from  the  sea,  through  its 
cascades  and  cataracts,  to  its  sources  in  the  interior  of 
the  continent.  Nor  Ghall  I  fail  to  advise  the  tourist, 
who  delights  in  the  grand  and  the  beautiful,  to  leave 
behind  him  the  Rhine  and  the  Hudson,  after  seeing  the 
one  marvel  of  N  iagara,  and  to  come  here  and  admire  the 
snow-clad  mountains  which  dominate  over  the  Pacific 
coast.  Wonderful,  horizontal,  and  massive  foundations 
lie  all  along  the  river  banks,  in  the  shape  of  wharves, 
docks,  ports,  and  gateways.  On  these  everlasting  found- 
ations are  raised,  not  merely  one  column  of  basaltic 
palisade,  but  terraces  of  basaltic  palisades,  which,  ris- 
ing one  above  another,  and  assuming  the  magnificent 
outlines  of  towers,  pinnacles,  castles,  coliseums,  and 
cathedrals,  seem  to  pierce  the  very  clouds. 

The   early   emigrants  saw,  as  they    descended   the 
Rocky   Mountains,  boundless   and   luxuriant  prairies, 
3 


26 


waterea  by  the  Willamette,  and  a  spacious  forest  region 
traversed  by  the  Columbia — plains,  forests,  and  rivers 
imequalled  on  the  Pacific  coast.  That  coast,  north- 
ward and  southward,  was  occupied  by  inert  races,  from 
whom  the  settlers  of  Oregon  apprehended  no  rivalry. 
They,  therefore,  expected  that  some  sea-port  in  their 
own  Territory  would  become  the  principal  seat  of  the 
western  commerce.  This  expectation  is  disappointed. 
The  opening  of  sea-ports,  with  inland  connections,  at 
the  base  of  the  northwestern  archipelago  on  Puget 
sound,  indicates  the  commercial  development  there  to 
which  I  have  already  alluded.  San  Francisco,  with  its 
magnificent  bay  and  fortified  Golden  Gate,  has  taken 
the  position  which  before  was  erroneously  assigned  to 
Astoria,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Columbia  river.  So  it  has 
happened  that  Oregon  proper  has  failed  to  obtain  the 
capital  prize  in  the  commercial  lottery  of  the  Pacific 
coast.  It  ought  to  be  enough,  however,  to  reconcile 
the  people  of  Oregon  to  that  disappointment,  to  know 
that  the  central  position  of  the  State,  between  and 
contiguous  to  the  two  great  commercial  out-posts  of  the 
Pacific,  alTords  her  the  advantage  of  being  at  once  the 
granary  and  manufactory  for  both.  It  is  in  Oregon,  so 
far  as  I  am  able  to  determine,  and  nowhere  else,  that 
two  climates — the  Atlantic,  with  its  heated  summers  and 
inclement  winters,  and  the  Pacific,  with  its  colder  sum-=^ 
mers  and  milder  winters — embrace  and  produce  a 
higher  and  more  varied  fertility  than  is  elsewhere  real- 
ized. The  Atlantic  States,  with  their  grassy  valleys, 
are  already  becoming  dependent  upon  the  slopes  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains  for  the  supply  of  animal  provisions. 
The  fruits  of  Orei^on  are  unsurpassed  in  quality  and 
unequalled  in  abundance.  Wheat  and  other  cereals 
grow  and  ripen  here,  almost  without  care,  as  abundantly 


isaB^fflKw^ss^ 


"'Ti'"rnn'""T°T*rT'-^-'"™'^'"""'™"'*^" 


■MM 


27 

as  they  do  with  the  use  of  irrigation  in  Utah,  while  the 
native  soil,  everywhere  covered  with  fern  and  annual 
flowers,  provokes  the  farmer  to  the  cultivation  of  the 
potato  and  other  esculent  roots.     What  acquaintance  I 
have  made  with  the   adventurous  miners,  descending 
the  Columbia  river,  satisfies  me,  that  if  it  were  possible 
for  the  laborer  to  fail  in  other  occupations,  he  would, 
even  in  that  case,  find  an  abundant  reward  in  the  gold 
deposits  of   the   mountains.     The   useful  metals  and 
minerals  abound  everywhere,  while  a  vast  hydraulic 
power,  invaluable  under  all  circumstances  and  indis- 
pensable in  new  communities,  is  distributed  throughout 
all  parts  of  the  State.     I  know,  indeed,  that  the  pres- 
ent dwellers  in  California  and  Washington  think  that 
they  possess  forest,  agricultural,  and  manufacturing  ad- 
vantages and  resources  commensurate  with  the  future 
which  they  anticipate.      My   own   observation   of  the 
ever-increasing  exigencies  of  New  York,  Philadelphia, 
Baltimore,  and  Boston — Paris,  Liverpool,  and  London — 
is  conclusive  with  me  upon  the  subject.     The  territo- 
rial lines  which  divide  one  political  jurisdiction    into 
distinct  States  not  unnaiurally  tend  to  circumscribe  and 
confuse  our  ideas  of  the  future  of  each  of  the  several 
States.    No  one  would  be  satisfied  with  the  prospect  ol 
Oregon  if  it  were  included   within  the   political  juris- 
diction of  California,  and  if  it  had  contiiuied  to  retain 
the  shores  of  Puget  Sound.     It  is  hardly  necessary  to 
say,  on  the  other  hand,  that  the  political  subdivision  uf 
the  region  tends  not  to  diminish,  but  to  magnify,  the 
prosperity  of  every  part. 

Such  is  the  future  which  I  argue  for  the  State  of 
Oregon.  This  destiny,  of  course,  exacts,  just  as  the 
future  of  every  part  of  the  United  States  always  does, 
an  increase  of  the   population  and  capital.     I   regard 


28 


this  condition  as  already  secured.  Population  will  seek 
and  find  every  place,  even  those  most  remote  and  least 
known,  where  industry,  already  organized  and  estab- 
lished, assures  to  the  laborer  a  certain  reward.  One 
need  only  to  look  into  Portland,  Dalles  City,  Oregon 
City,  and  other  towns,  to  see  that  capital  is  profitably 
employed.  One  need  only  to  look  over  the  fields  and 
orchards  in  the  agricultural  districts,  and  upon  the  ves- 
sels engaged  in  inland  transportation  on  the  Willamette, 
to  enable  him  to  foresee  a  speedy  subdivision  of  im- 
mense farms  among  multiplied  emigrants.  Neverthe- 
less, population  is  not  to  be  grown  here  or  elsewhere 
in  one  country  in  sufiicient  numbers  and  with  sufficient 
haste.  It  must  everywhere  be  induced  from  abroad. 
It  will  not  go  anywhere  until  its  going  can.  be  made 
cheap  and  easy  by  improved  transportation.  The  Co- 
lumbia river  and  the  Willamette,  although  noble  streams, 
cannot,  unaided,  perform  the  work.  They  do  not  pene- 
trate the  sources  of  emigration,  nor  adequately  distri- 
bute it  through  the  State.  They  must  be  reinforced 
with  railroads;: — first,  railroad  to  San  Francisco  and 
Puget  Sound,  where  the  immediate  consumers  of  your 
agricultural  products  will  dwell ;  next,  railroads  through 
the  mining  regions,  intersecting  the  existing  Pacific 
railroad  and  such  others  as  shall  be  built.  The  re-^ 
ceivers  of  your  productions  along  and  at  the  ends  of 
such  railroads  will  forward,  in  return,  the  emigrants 
and  laborers  whom  you  will  require  in  increasing  the 
productions.  Nor  would  you  hasten  the  future  of  your 
State,  which  I  regard  as  the  common  interest  of  the 
whole  Republic,  by  suffering  yourselves  to  be  involved 
as  partisans  in  the  local  and  personal  passions,  ambi- 
tions, and  jealousies  of  other  communities.  No  State 
or  nation  has  ever  flourished  that  was  unsocial,  inhos- 


29 


pitable,  or  intolerant.  Your  statesmen  in  the  national 
councils,  if  they  are  wise,  will  foster  and  cultivate  har- 
mony and  peace  equally  throughout  the  whole  Repub- 
lic, and  harmony  and  peace  equally  with  all  foreign 
nations,  insisting  at  the  same  time,  as  is  their  right, 
upon  a  policy  at  home  and  abroad  which  shall  be 
adapted  to  the  interest  of  the  Pacific.  Such  a  policy 
will  require  that  the  United  States  shall  own  and  pos- 
sess self-producing  islands  on  your  coast,  and  sugar  and 
coffee-producing  islands  in  both  oceans,  and  will  regard 
the  extension  of  American  invention  and  enterprise 
into  Japan,  China,  Australia,  and  India,  as  worthy  of 
consideration  equally  with  international  commerce  be- 
tween the  United  States  and  the  countries  of  Western 
Europe.  ,1  found  in  your  morning  paper  yesterday  the 
following  dispatch:  "The  ship  Norway  arrived  on  the 
4th  of  September,  one  hundred  and  fifty-seven  days 
from  Cardiff.  This  ship  brings  iron  for  ten  miles  of 
the  East  Side  road,  being  the  first  installment  of  two 
thousand  tons,  purchased  by  Ben  Holladay  &  Co.  The 
rest  is  on  another  vessel,  which  is  due  in  thirty  days, 
if  she  makes  an  average  voyage."  This  mere  transac- 
tion suggests  what  Oregon  and  the  whole  Pacific  coast 
need  :  1st,  such  manufacture  of  your  own  metals  as 
will  relieve  you  from  the  necessity  of  importing  iron 
.from  any  foreign  country;  and,  2d,  the  construction 
of  a  ship  canal  across  the  Isthmus  of  Darien,  which 
will  reduce  the  navigation  between  the  Pacific  shores 
and  those  of  the  Atlantic,  of  both  continents,  a  hun- 
dred and  twenty  days. 

I  know  too  well  that  political,  religious,  and  social 
objections  are  made  against  the  policy  of  freedom  and 
immigration  which  I  advocate.  But  such  objections 
are  as  old  as  the  Republic.     They  have  assisted,  and 


80 


at  times  threatened  to  strangle  or  arrest,  this  great 
policy,  which  was  wisely  engrafted  upon  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States.  What  would  have  been  our 
condition  now,  and  our  prospects,  if  the  country  had 
listened  to  objections  of  the  same  nature  against  the 
abolition  of  African  slavery — a  measure  to  which  we 
are  indebted  for  entire  and  complete  national  inde- 
pendence? What  if  we  had  yielded  to  the  fiery  re- 
sistance made  to  that  Irish  immigration  which  has  con- 
structed so  many  of  our  canals  and  railroads,  and  built 
so  many  of  our  cities  ?  What  if  we  had  been  prevailed 
upon  to  repel  and  reject  that  great  German  immigra- 
tion which  has  given  a  new  impulse  to  our  arts,  our 
hterature,  and  our  science?  We  have  no  excuse  for 
admitting  such  objections  or  prejudices  now.  The  ex- 
periment of  self-government  which  we  are  making  has 
developed  its  own  necessary  conditions  and  laws.  We 
could  not  escape  from  them  even  if  we  would.  The 
experiment  we  are  making,  fellow-citizens,  is  not  a 
local  or  isolated  experiment,  whether  the  people  of 
one  nation  are  capable  of  self-government.  It  is  the 
experiment  whether  men  of  ?.\\  nations  are  capable  of 
self-government.  Let  us  persevere  in  it,  relying  that 
mankind  in  every  country  only  need  freedom  and  know- 
ledge to  enable  them  to  govern  themselves  more  wisely 
and  more  happily  than  they  have  hitherto  been  gov- 
er..ea. 

Citizens  of  Oregon,  it  is  long  since  we  have  known, 
though  it  is  only  just  now  that  we  have  met,  each 
other.  I  have  been  made  profoundly  sensible  of  this 
fact  by  your  invitation,  which  found  me  at  sea  ;  by 
the  welcome  given  me  on  arrival  in  port;  by  the 
reception  and  munificent  hospitalities  bestowed  upon 
me  in  your  great  commercial  city  of  Portland  j  by  the 


C( 


81 

cap  tal     and  by  way^do  entertainments  in  the  village 
I    tl   T'"'       '^°  ^— »»J«.  -'d  in  the  fa,-m.hou!e 

Should  not  fai    to  invoke,  forever,  blessings  fit  for  all 
sorts  and  conditions  of  men,  upon  Oregon 


